What is AliExpress?

AliExpress is not just one store, with a warehouse and their own customer support team. In fact it is not even a store itself. AliExpress has no warehouse and no customer support. You cannot buy anything from AliExpress. It is only a portal site to different Chinese stores.

This means you are dealing with different Chinese stores directly. These individual companies sell their products through AliExpress. These individual companies take care of the product handling, shipping and customer support.

AliExpress makes this interaction between you and a Chinese seller as convenient as possible. AliExpress has a very searchable product database. The site is translated in many different languages. AliExpress takes care of the payment methods, and has a 100% product guarantee!

Is it possible to write a real AliExpress Review?

When we write a review about any Chinese store, we focus on Quality, Shipping, Price and Customer Support.

Although AliExpress is not a real store itself, lets use these criteria to write this AliExpress Review.

Product Quality at AliExpress

The products are sold by many different companies. Sometimes you will find the manufactory, most of the times you will find Chinese resellers. Because of this you can find exactly the same products for different prices.

(We bought from the second company and it was a success at Castlefest last week. The quality was very good!)

I suggest when you found a product you like, you search a little longer to see if you can get it for a lower price. This is very well possible.

Be aware that you can find a lot of fake products or remade products too. Some companies just copy the images from higher priced products and send you a cheap remake. Be sure to check the user reviews at AliExpress too.

Shipping by AliExpress

The individual companies take care of the shipping process. When you buy multiple products, you will deal with multiple stores. Most of the times, all products are shipped separately.

Depending on the store, some products will arrive within 8 days. Some products from the same order will arrive after 4 weeks. It’s always a guess, but…

AliExpress takes very good care of the support behind the shipping process. If you haven’t got your products after 30 days, AliExpress sends you emails that you must contact the seller or start a dispute. See below.

Last month I ordered a hat for the same festival as mentioned above. It arrived all wrinkled by the shipping process and it was useless. I had to buy a new hat.

I contacted the seller and asked for a refund. (if you start a dispute immediately, they get annoyed, because a dispute lowers their ratings). I can still start a dispute and I’m 100% certain I will get my money back. That’s pretty relaxed!

Prices at AliExpress

The prices at AliExpress are very competitive. This is because the different sellers compete with each other on the same portal (AliExpress). You will find many temporary discounts and you can use this to find the lowest or best price.

Customer Support and Buyers Protection by AliExpress

Here comes the biggest question in this AliExpress Review!

How can a company that is not a real shop, give great customer support without their own customer support team?

The prices are competitive because individual Chinese sellers compete with each other on the same site.

AliExpress takes care of the payment process. The seller doesn’t get your credit card info. Only AliPay (also a AliBaba company) has your info. This is very secure because you never need to give you credit card info online again.

AliExpress uses Escrow. This means that when you buy a product, you pay to AliExpress. They deposit the money temporarily. Only after you have received the product and are satisfied, the seller gets his money. If you re not satisfied, you can ask a refund, and AliExpress will give it to you. Not the seller! This is a very good buyers protection. The seller will do anything to get you satisfied!

If the dispute time comes to an end, AliExpress sends you emails that you must take action towards the seller.

All communication with the sellers is done within the AliExpress interface.

If you are not satisfied, you can always get your money back! And that’s the biggest advantage!

The back site of AliExpress is that they do not accept PayPal. PayPal is a competitor to their sister company AliPay. I hope this will change one time.

Selecting a store at AliExpress

When you buy at AliExpress the customer support from the individual companies will differ. That’s why you must look at the seller ratings on the right site of the screen.

Here you find the store name (here ‘To see the world’). Below the name you find the average feedback score in percentages an with and the diamond score.

The diamond score is the sum of all Star Ratings. These scores have been converted into points.

Conversion: 5 Star or 4 Star Ratings = +1 Point

3 Star Ratings = 0 Points

2 Star or 1 Star Ratings = -1 Point

For this store ‘To see the world’ this means that they have at least 841 more positive reviews than negative feedback.

Check this seller rating before you buy anything. When their rating is high, they will do everything to keep you satisfied!

In conclusion

AliExpress is a leading store for products from China. You are dealing with individual resellers and AliExpress takes care of all processes like, payment, customer support, disputes.

The prices at AliExpress are very competitive. On site and compared with other online Chinese stores.

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